The autobiographical notes of Alice Parris: poet/lyricist/singer of old jazz standards.

Tag Archives: Democratic Party

The Narcissistic Personality is a personality disorder. It manifests itself as grandiose in its self-image. When in interpersonal group interactions, there will be lacking this grandiosity, and the personality will appear reasonable, patient even. In other settings, the Narcissistic Personality will display a profound lack of empathy which might manifest as wildly inaccurate interpretitions of other people’s speech and actions. The Narcissistic Personality believes that they are liked and respected despite a history of callous and exploitive personal interactions. When the narcissist is a parent, they are impossible to please, always right. There is a repetitive action of the narcissist to create shame in others.

When I read from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: 4th edition; 1994 a.k.a DSM IV of the American Psychiatric Association, what comes to mind are the pesonalities of some of the Fox news luminaries. How did Fox manage to hit the jackpot on narcissists? From the nightly anchors, to pundits and authors, it is quite a parade of the self-important, is it not? O’Reilly and Hannity immediately come to mind. To hear their self-righteous litanies, one would think that they really do believe that they make the sun come up in the morning, shine upon whomever they deem deserving, and withdraw it from the unworthy with either a dismissive comment or bully-pulpit-pounding. It turns the stomach of most people who really do want to get true perspective.

Everyone knows that Fox is deep into the administration, that it is a marvel that they are able to surface for the airing of their “earth-shattering” line-ups. What Fox has done is to have gotten so many attorneys on their staff, that they can confidently defame; exercising their freedom of speech to affect the political climate. They have educators, authors, and governmental has-beens who, when they sit on a panel to debate, use their oracles. Many of them barely escaped jail terms for various misconducts, or either they have “traded-up” on spouses in order to have arrived at the peak of their game.

This Narcissistic Personality Disorder is running wild at the Fox News Network. It lends itself to the unwitting actually believing that their most loved personalities are right about everything that they say. Let’s face it- a narcissist cannot ever be wrong. If the truth rears its ugly head, they will get ugly and resort to smears just short of libel. Now, is the time to understand that it is not Fox News who makes the world turn, no matter how many times we are baraged with the statistics of the superiority of their programs ( O’Reilly proports to have beaten out all the other news stations combined on any given day) Hannity will not affect this upcoming election no matter how many times we have to hear him say the same things over and over, or how he jumps on a new piece of news like a hungry coyote; dragging it around for days and days on end until he can find enough “experts” to agree with his analysis of how this news will change the election outcome. I can imagine that Hannity’s “visions of sugar-plums” have everything to do with his bringing into the Fox lair the piece of vitriol that they can all gnaw on in hopes of deflecting the fact that Senator McCain is not an eloquent, energetic or inspiring candidate.

The Narcissistic Personality Disorder is difficult to treat. They usually do not seek treatment until the ego is shattered, rendering the personality incapable of continuing without intervention. Perhaps Fox News should have qualified therapists on hand to take care of their anchors and frequent guests. They will all need some help when the force that is driving the Democratic Party blows through and sweeps out the remnants of the indefensible, who now govern our country. This therapeutic process will be lengthy, as there are no quick fixes. Even if there were progress being made, the Narccissistic Personality would not be capable of acknowledging such progress since within their own minds it is everyone else who has the problem.